School of Medicine

​When it comes to rewards and punishments, which is more effective — the carrot or the stick? Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have devised a simple experiment to test the effects of rewards and punishments on behavior and have found that punishments seem to be more effective at influencing behavior.

Linda J. Sandell, PhD, the Mildred B. Simon Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, received the Alfred R. Shands Jr., MD, Award at the Orthopaedic Research Society’s recent annual meeting in Las Vegas.

Tiffany Osborn, MD, associate professor of surgery and of emergency medicine, and her colleagues published a paper April 2 in The New England Journal of Medicine about septic shock. The paper was chosen for the NEJM’s online forum and drew more than 23,000 views and several thousand podcast listeners.

From May 4-15, contractors will clean, mill and repave Duncan Avenue between Boyle and Newstead avenues. During this time, Duncan will be closed in two phases.

Researchers have uncovered a unique connection between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, providing further evidence that a disease that robs people of their memories may be affected by elevated blood sugar, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Philip Needleman, PhD, former chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Washington University School of Medicine and the Brown School have received a $4 million grant to study whether a new model of providing family planning services can reduce unintended pregnancies and births. As part of the study, they are recruiting 10,000 women of child-bearing age in the St. Louis area to participate.

G. Alexander Patterson, MD, the Joseph C. Bancroft Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named editor of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, a peer-reviewed journal in cardiothoracic surgery.

David M. Holtzman, a leading expert in researching the underlying mechanisms that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, and Paul Michael Lützeler, an authority on 18th, 19th and 20th century German literature, will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2015 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced.

Washington University School of Medicine neuroscientists, led by Michael R. Bruchas, PhD, assistant professor of anesthesiology and of neurobiology, have attached the light-sensing protein rhodopsin to opioid receptor parts to activate the receptor pathways using light from a laser fiber-optic device. They also influenced the behavior of mice using light, rather than drugs, to activate the reward response.